The present invention relates generally to instructional settings wherein participants view specimens through respective microscopes, and more particularly to a microscopy laboratory system wherein an instructor and students can view an overall instructional image that selectively includes images from the field of view of one, some, or all of the microscopes in the laboratory.
Microscopy laboratories at universities, teaching hospitals, etc. are known to include a television monitor or projection unit that receives an image signal from a camera mounted on the instructor's microscope, such as by a C-mount, trinocular viewing body, video module, or the like. In this way, each student in the laboratory can view an image that serves as a model to help him or her position a like specimen on his or her own microscope and to adjust the specimen location, objective power, focus, illumination, filters and other parameters of the microscope in an effort to match the displayed image from the field of view of the instructor's microscope. In this type of system, it is also known to provide a marking device that allows the instructor to annotate the displayed image from his or her microscope. Absent this technology, a photograph in a textbook is often used as a model. A drawback of this system is that the instructor cannot see what the students are viewing through their own microscopes. Often, the instructor must walk around the laboratory and look through each student's microscope to make sure every student in the laboratory is viewing a proper image, or the instructor must walk over to a particular student's station whenever a question arises. Clearly, this type of system is inefficient because the instructor must spend time checking the student microscopes rather than instructing the students. Another drawback is that the instructor has no means to annotate an image from a student's microscope to better provide constructive criticism or positive reinforcement.